Permits Planned for Long-Disputed Carolina Jetties

AP

Published: November 3, 1990

RALEIGH, N.C., Nov. 2—
Federal permits will be issued in six to eight months for the construction of jetties at an inlet in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, a project that has aroused intense disagreement in the state.

Some state officials say the jetties are needed to prevent the Oregon Inlet from filling with silt and to protect fishing interests. But environmentalists say the jetties would worsen an already serious erosion problem on the Outer Banks.

The Herbert C. Bonner bridge across the inlet was knocked out in a gale last month, when it was struck by a dredge. But the jetties had been a source of intense controversy long before the accident. The inlet allows access from the Atlantic Ocean into Pamlico Sound.

At a news conference on Thursday, the Secretary of Transportation, Samuel K. Skinner, presented a $2.5 million check to the state to go toward rebuilding the bridge's missing segment. Mr. Skinner said the check was the Federal Government's 80 percent share of the repair costs.

The news conference, which was held in Greensboro, was called by Senator Jesse Helms, a Republican, as part of his re-election campaign. At the session, Mr. Helms said he was carrying a letter in which the Federal Interior Secretary, Manuel Lujan Jr., promised the permits for jetty construction in six to eight months.

The accident, which left Hatteras Island isolated, "got their attention," Mr. Helms said, referring to Federal agencies. "I think it brought them together and they agreed, for the first time, something needed to be done and should have been done earlier." He and Gov. James G. Martin said it was that accident, not political motives, that led to the jetty announcement.

"The jetties will save the fishing industry of North Carolina in that area," said Mr. Helms, who is in a close race against Harvey Gantt, a Democrat.

But environmentalists fear the jetties would increase erosion that is already damaging Outer Banks beaches in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.

"In the next few years, we should see severe erosion downstream, which is already happening," said Orrin H. Pilkey Jr., a Duke University geology professor who is one of the most outspoken opponents of the jetties. "Highway 12 is on the brink of being lost with every storm."

Agreement on the jetties came after the Army Corps of Engineers said it would give the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service, which control land access on both the north and south sides of Oregon Inlet, a voice in the project's design, Mr. Helms said.